Network Working Group D. Clark
Request for Comments: 1287 MIT
L. Chapin
BBN
V. Cerf
CNRI
R. Braden
ISI
R. Hobby
UC Davis
December 1991
Towards the Future Internet Architecture
Status of this Memo
This informational RFC discusses important directions for possible
future evolution of the Internet architecture, and suggests steps
towards the desired goals. It is offered to the Internet community
for discussion and comment. This memo provides information for the
Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................. 2
2. ROUTING AND ADDRESSING ....................................... 5
3. MULTI-PROTOCOL ARCHITECTURES ................................. 9
4. SECURITY ARCHITECTURE ........................................ 13
5 TRAFFIC CONTROL AND STATE .................................... 16
6. ADVANCED APPLICATIONS ........................................ 18
7. REFERENCES ................................................... 21
APPENDIX A. Setting the Stage .................................... 22
APPENDIX B. Group Membership ..................................... 28
Security Considerations .......................................... 29
Authors' Addresses ............................................... 29
Clark, Chapin, Cerf, Braden, & Hobby [Page 1]RFC 1287 Future of Internet Architecture December 19911. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Internet Architecture
The Internet architecture, the grand plan behind the TCP/IP
protocol suite, was developed and tested in the late 1970s by a
small group of network researchers [1-4]. Several important
features were added to the architecture during the early 1980's --
subnetting, autonomous systems, and the domain name system [5,6].
More recently, IP multicasting has been added [7].
Within this architectural framework, the Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) has been working with great energy and effectiveness
to engineer, define, extend, test, and standardize protocols for
the Internet. Three areas of particular importance have been
routing protocols, TCP performance, and network management.
Meanwhile, the Internet infrastructure has continued to grow at an
astonishing rate. Since January 1983 when the ARPANET first
switched from NCP to TCP/IP, the vendors, managers, wizards, and
researchers of the Internet have all been laboring mightily to
survive their success.
A set of the researchers who had defined the Internet architecture
formed the original membership of the Internet Activities Board
(IAB). The IAB evolved from a technical advisory group set up in
1981 by DARPA to become the general technical and policy oversight
body for the Internet. IAB membership has changed over the years
to better represent the changing needs and issues in the Internet
community, and more recently, to reflect the internationalization
of the Internet, but it has retained an institutional concern for
the protocol architecture.
The IAB created the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to
carry out protocol development and engineering for the Internet.
To manage the burgeoning IETF activities, the IETF chair set up
the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) within the IETF.
The IAB and IESG work closely together in ratifying protocol
standards developed within the IETF.
Over the past few years, there have been increasing signs of
strains on the fundamental architecture, mostly stemming from
continued Internet growth. Discussions of these problems
reverberate constantly on many of the major mailing lists.
1.2 Assumptions
The priority for solving the problems with the current Internet
architecture depends upon one's view of the future relevance of
Clark, Chapin, Cerf, Braden, & Hobby [Page 2]RFC 1287 Future of Internet Architecture December 1991
TCP/IP with respect to the OSI protocol suite. One view has been